the wealthy but everyone. what it means, frankly, is whether you live in connecticut like the presiding officer or illinois like myself, every family is going to see several things happen automatically. taxes will go up. the payroll tax cut that has helped this economy is going to disappear. unemployment benefits are going to disappear for millions of americans who are searching for work, and many other changes will take place, none of which will be favorable in terms of an economic recovery. i think that we ought to stop and reflect for a moment here on lessons learned. here's what i have learned. if we're going to solve this problem, we need to do two things. we need to be prepared on both sides of the table to give, and that's a hard thing for many people to acknowledge, but we do. we have to be willing to give on both sides of the table. i remember senator reid receiving a letter after the super committee was hard at work coming up with a bipartisan proposal, signed by virtually every senator on the other side of the aisle, said do not include a penny of revenue. that was the end of
